Howl at The Moon
by Kirorokat
Summary: The Sanzo party meets a strange girl, strange in that she was raised by wolves. When her family is slaughtered demons hired by the villagers, will she be able to find peace wih the rowdy bunch, or fall head-long into despair?
1. Chapter 1

**Panic in The Pack and A Cute New Face**

"I'm huungry!" Goku whined for the third time.

"Shut _up _you _stupid _monkey!" Sanzo yelled, whirling around and smacking said monkey upside the head with a paper fan.

"Ow! Geez, I can't help it," Goku muttered, rubbing his head. "We haven't eaten since breakfast for cryin' out loud."

"Sanzo, Sanzo," Gojyo sighed, slinging his arms over the front seats, "You, of all people, should know that food is all that our one-track monkey's pea-sized brain has the room to think about."

Sanzo merely grunted a responce while Hakkai laughed. Goku, however, failed to see the humor in Gojyo's comment.

"My brain's bigger than a pea! And don't call me a monkey, perverted kappa!!" he exclaimed, balling his hands into fists.

"What'd you say?!" Gojyo retaliated, spinning around to face the youngster with fists of his own, "I can't understand your screeching, you damn chimp!"

"Say that again to my face, you stupid cockroach!" Goku yelled, grabbing the red-head by the collar of his shirt. The verbal banter continued for a few minutes until Sanzo got fed up with hearing it.

**Bang! Bang! Bang!**

"You wanna die?" he asked, seething.

Before either of the two now terrified back-seat passangers could respond, they all found themselves lurching forward at the sound of wheels skidding on the dirt road, Hakkai having slammed on the breaks.

"Holy shit!" Gojyo exclaimed, his hands white-knuckling the rim of the jeep, "Hakkai, a god-damned _warning _sure woulda been appreciated!"

"Sorry about that," Hakkai replied, smiling apologetically.

"What was that all about, anyway?" Goku inquired, head poking up to the front of the vehicle between Hakkai and Sanzo.

"Well," Hakkai said, trailing off and pointing.

In front of the jeep (Goku and Gojyo had to stand to look) the guys saw a small, somewhat fluffy creature curled up in the middle of the road, trembling.

"What is it?" Goku asked.

Hakkai turned to the youthful brunette with a patient smile.

"I'm not totally sure, but..."

"It looks like a wolf," Gojyo interjected.

"Exactly," Hakkai agreed, "Although that one's just a baby."

At that point, the helpless creature looked up at the jeep, ears quivering from its trembling, and let out a long, loud whine. Then, it clumsily stood and attempted to scamper away, only to yelp in pain.

"It looks like its leg is injured," Hakkai observed, his smile gone and replaced by a look of concern.

"I don't care what the hell it is or what's wrong with it," Sanzo grunted, looking down so that his bangs shadowed his eyes, "Let's go."

"But Sanzooo!" Goku protested, "We can't just leave it here. It's so cute!"

"We're leaving! _Now!_"

Upon hearing this Goku pouted for a moment, fuming. Then, he hopped out of the car, sprinted over to the pitiful pup, and brought it back to the jeep with him. The pup, obviously exhausted, didn't protest aside from snarling at him.

"Can we take it with us, then?"

Sanzo turned and shot a long glare at Goku, then sighed - knowing the headache he'd get from arguing with him - and turned back around.

"Do what you want."

She was, at the moment, sitting in the middle of her home. It was relatively deep within the forest, so as to avoid the humans and youkai. She could hear the river off in the distance, but it wasn't close enough to worry about flooding during the rainy season. It was a somewhat small clearing with some flat boulders that made comfy sun-bathing spots and some dens that were dug underground. At the moment, the girl's home was in a panic, with her family barking and growling at eachother, trying to figure out what they should do about the missing pup.

So, the girl sat amidst the chaos, trying to help keep the remaining puppies calm. She wished the pack leader would hurry up and return from the hunting trip he had taken with about half the pack. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long; after a few minutes the hunting group arrived and order was shortly restored. Two groups out of the pack were organized; one would stay behind with the pups, and the significantly larger one would search for the missing one. The girl was grateful to be part of the latter group, for although she loved the little ones, they were a handfull.

With a short farewell to the pack elder, the girl was dashing through the forest, searching for her lost "sibling".


	2. Chapter 2

**It's Time For a Snack Break**

~~~~  
Gojyo was out womanizing the town, and Hakkai had taken Goku with him to help carry back the groceries, which left Sanzo alone at the inn with their new companion, much to his dismay.

"Arf! Ar-ar-ar-rrrrarf!"

Sanzo looked up from his newspaper, annoyed at the pup's noisiness.

"What?" he asked irritably.

Seeing that it had Sanzo's attention, the little wolf jumped up to it's feet, then flopped its forelegs back on the ground, leaving its rump up in the air with a wagging tail.

"Che."

Straightening his newspaper, Sanzo looked away and continued reading. Hakkai was going to get cigarettes along with the groceries and Sanzo wished he'd hurry the hell up. Suddenly, Sanzo felt a tug at his robe, and as an anger vein popped up on his head he glared down at the culprit.

"Go. Away," he growled with a leer.

"Rrrrr," the pup replied with a mischevous wag of its tail, looking up at the grouchy, gun-wielding priest.

"Damn pain in the ass," Sanzo muttered, shaking his foot in an attempt todetach the creature from his clothes. However, he failed of releasing Sanzo's robe, the pup tightened its grip on the cloth and proceeded to vigorously shake its head from side to side.

"Knock it off!" Sanzo snapped, his voice rising as he brandished the newspaper threateningly. The wolf, in turn, looked up at Sanzo with a gleam in its eyes, let out a playful growl, and gave the robe one more shake.

"Goku?"

The spirited youngster was nowhere to be seen. Hakkai looked around where he stood to see if the boy was at a nearby kiosk, but Hakkai didn't see him.

"I turn my back for one second and he..."

"Hakkai! Hakkai! They've got meatbuns!!"

"Speak of the devil," Hakkai said with a smile. Goku latched himself onto one of Hakkai's sleeves, a pleading look plastered on his face as he looked up at the patient man.

"We just ate breakfast two hours ago," Hakkai reasoned, picking up on Goku's not-so-subtle hint.

"But that was two whole hours ago!" Goku protested, "C'mon, Hakkai, I'm _starving."_

Hakkai couldn't help but relentas he looked down at the youth's pleading countanence, and told him to wait as he finished buying groceries.

'Besides,' Hakkai though, a hint of amusement in his smile, 'It's not my money, and it annoys Sanzo when I _spoil _Goku.' Although, Hakkai didn't really think buying the kid a meatbun every once in a while was spoiling him.

Once he finished his bussiness, Hakkai handed some bags to Goku and followed as he was led to the meatbun kiosk. Along with Goku's, Hakkai also purchased one for himself, and they sat at a table and ate, with Hakuryuu getting nibbles from Hakkai.

"I wonder how Sanzo's doing with the puppy?" Goku wondered aloud, talking around a mouthful of meat and bready goodness.

"He's probably annoyed as hell at the moment and wishing we'd hurry up with his cigarettes," Hakkai replied, feeding Hakuryuu another bite.

"Why can't we name 'im anyway?" Goku inquired, readying to take another bite.

"Because we're going to release him once we get back and I heal his injury," Hakkai answered patiently, "I didn't have time earlier because Sanzo was in such a hurry for more cigarettes."

After a few moments of silent snacking, Hakkai noticed a change in the crowd. A split was developing as if some celebrity was walking through. However, judging by the looks of disdain, disgust, and flat-out fear, Hakkai figured that whoever it was wasn't popular with the townspeople. As the figure got closer (Hakkai realized fairly quickly that they were headed in his and Goku's direction) he could see the stranger was in fact an old woman.

"Would you young gentlemen mind if this old woman joined you for a rest?" she inquired.

"Not at all!" Hakkai replied, and got up to scoot out a chair for her. Although wondering why she didn't just sit at another empty table, he figured he'd best figure out why hated the seemingly normal woman.

"Hi!" Goku said, grinning, "My name's Goku. What's yours?"

The woman turned to the perky brunette and gave him a warm smile. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Actually, no," Hakkai replied, ever-present smile on his face, "We're just travelers passing through."

"Good, good," the woman muttered with a sad, knowing smile.

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A/N - Sorry this one took so long coming out, I didn't plan on that. Please rate and review!


	3. Chapter 3

**More Village Visitors**

Unlike the rest of the pack, the girl searched on her own instead of in a small group. She was following the scent of the missing pup, which she'd just picked up, when she found herself at a road. She scrunched her nose and growled in frustration; she knew many people used roads to travel by, so finding the pup's scent on it would be difficult, especially for her since she didn't have a wolf's nose. She placed her nose to the ground and began searching. After a few minutes she sat on her knees and let out a snort; she'd found his scent, but her nose wasn't keen enough to pick out out from the others so that she could follow it. She tilted her head up and let out a howl, calling the rest of the search party, and waited.

Gojyo was walking up the stairs in the inn, having returned after failing to pick up any girls.

'I don't get it!' he thought despairingly, a mixture of sadness and confusion on his face. 'I just don't... Huh?'

He stopped in front of their room after hearing a growling noise from the inside. Opening the door, he saw clothing strewn about the floor and Sanzo sitting at the table, head propped uo with one hand reading the newspaperwhile the other hand held a sock. Attached to said sock was the aforementioned pup, who was shaking his head back and forth in an attempt to get it from Sanzo. Looking around Gojyo realized that the clothes (including the sock) looked really familiar...

"What the hell, you prissy monk!" the red-head exclaimed, realizing _whose _clothes they were and storming toward Sanzo, "Let 'im tear through your own clothes, dammit!"

Sanzo paid no attention to Gojyo whatsoever; didn't even look at him. Instead, he simply go of his end of the sock, letting the puppy scamper off with it, thrashing it about mercilessly.

"I'm huuungry!"

Hakkai let out a chuckle as a sweatdrop rolled down his head and replied, "we're almost there, Goku. Once we got back we'll eat dinner."

With the help of her family, the girl had tracked the pup's trail to a certain spot on the road, where it ended and became one of a person and a strange thing, the tracks of which she'd never seen before. She followed the pack on the new trail, having nothing else to go by. After a while, they found themselves at the entrance of the nearest village, and the girl found herself staring into the village with slightly widened eyes.

She didn't like people; she even feared them. She knew how cruel they could be and of their selfishness. Having been abandoned by her parents, she had no trouble believing the stories her family told her.

The pack, afteer hesitating for a few moments,split up again to comb through the village. The girl and her search partner went straight ahead, despite her fearful whine; they had comforted and reassured her some, but they wouldn't stop, and she knew better than to refuse to go. However, she (as well as the rest of the pack) kept her guard up and used extreme caution while slinking about the streets; afterall, it was dangerous for wolves to be in a place in which humans didn't wantb them.

Sanzo and Gojyo sat quietly and listened as Hakkai told them about his and Goku's encounter with the strange old woman that had approached them earlier. Goku had left to take a walk and explore the village, saying that he was bored; Sanzo made him take the pup, too.

"So you had lunch with this creepy ol' hag and she gives you a weird-ass prophecy as her parting words?" Gojyo asked, summerizing the story in his own words.

"Pretty much," Hakkai replied, "Although it took some prodding to get her to tell us. She said she didn't want to bother us with it."

"Since we're stuck here untill tomorrow, we'll probably get dragged into the middle of it anyway," Sanzo commented dully.

Goku yawned hugely, not bothering to hide his boredom. He'd been walking for several minutes now and he couldn't find a single thing to help eleviate hnis boredom.

Suddenly, the puppy in his arms started squirming restlessly, and let out a few barks. Goku looked up to see the wolf was barking at the entrance of a side street. He held his hands up to shield his eyes from the sun and squinted; the street was heavily shadowed and hard to see into. Then he saw someone slowly approach him, almost seeming to have materialized from the shadow itself. The person got close enough for Goku to see that the stranger was actually a girl; before she snarled. She'd seen her "brother" and reflexivelt became aggressive.

"You're a youkai, aren't you?!" Goku exclaimed. He was upwind, therefore unable to know by her scent that she was human. He was about to activate his noi-bo when he remembered that he was holding the wolf. So he did the next best thing he could think of.

He turned right around and ran straight for the inn.

"Grrrrragh!"

The boy knew where the enraged snarl had come from and knew from the footsteps behind him that the girl was following him.

'Shit!' Goku thought frantically. He hoped none of the villagers got in the way.


	4. Chapter 4

**Encounters**

* * *

Hey people, sorry this took so long to update. Believe it or not, I had the other two chapters already on here, but I forgot to put them in the stories, so they didn't show up. Anyway, I have a fun suggestion: I need a name for the OC, because obviously I can't keep calling her "the girl" all the time. Please send me messages or reviews with name suggestions, and I'll pick the one I like the best!

* * *

Goku looked over his shoulder in bewilderment, having heard a thud, then a sudden change in his pursuer's footsteps. She was now catching up to him fairly quickly, and Goku immediately saw why; she was running on _all fours, _like a dog. He was also surprised by the fact that she was doing so with as much grace and flexibility as she was, but he didn't really focus on that too much, since she was trying to kill him as far as he knew. Looking up, Goku saw the door to the inn almost go right by him, and he shot his arm out and grabbed the handle just in time to prevent himself from having to backtrack, which he _really _didn't want to do. The girl had kept pace with the brunette she was chasing, and, having greatly reduced the distance between herself and him, she lunged right as he threw the door open.

~~~~  
**_Dun!_**

Gojyo, Sanzo, and Hakkai all looked up at eachother, curious as to what made the out-of-place noise downstairs, and even more so once they heard the smug laughter of a certain monkey as he ran up the stairs. He burst into the room before any of them could make a comment and yelled, "This crazy youkai's chasin' me, hold him!" At which he thrust the puppy into the arms of whever he was closest to (Hakkai), whirled around, and summoned his weapon. He didn't have to wait long to hear the "crazy youkai" storming up the stairs and see her barging through the door.

"Goku," Hakkai said, still holding the pup, "I thought you said a _youkai _was chasing you."

Taking a look at the girl in the doorway, Goku quickly understood what Hakkai was saying. Her eyes were brimming with rage and determination, teeth bared in a fierce snarl, and fingers curled to resemble claws, but there were no pointy ears, no bizarre birth mark, and no power limiters; she was human.

"Well she was standing in the shadows, I couldn't see that well!"

"Geez," Gojyo murmered, surprised and looking at her face. Her nose and forehead were bleeding. "You _hit _a human _girl_?"

At this point poor Goku was starting to get defensive.

"I didn't hit her, damn it, she ran into the door!"

Gojyo laughed upon hearing this, and even Hakkai let out a chuckle. Sanzo face-palmed, but was otherwise silent.

The subject of their conversation had made her way into the room and, upon seeing Hakkai, proceeded to quickly make her way toward him, eyes fixated on the creature that had been hurriedly placed in his arms.

"Hey!" Goku exclaimed, swinging his Noi-Bo toi send her back.

~~~~  
The girl looked frantically arounf the room for a fleeting moment before her gaze fell on her "little brother" being held in a different human's arms. He was older than the one she'd been chasing a few minutes ago, and his hair was black. His eyes were green, and there was a strange white creature perched on his shoulder. She didn't care much about what he looked like, though.

She smelled blood. Her brother was bleeding; he'd been hurt.

Her rage dissipated a great deal and turned to concern as she briskly made her way toward the stranger. He looked slightly taken aback by this, but she didn't have more than a moment to notice. There was a shout, and she just barely dodged the youngest one as he swung a strange stick at her.

She jumped back and snarled at him, trying to keep her attention on everyone in the room, him and the geen-eyes man in particular.

"She seems pretty desperate on gettin' to ya, Hakkai,"the red-headed one near the back commented. (A/N - Please note that the OC doesn't understand what they're saying.)

"Or," replied the one with the black hair in realization, "More specifically, this little one here."

At that moment, there was a surprised shriek from then innkeeper downstairs, and everyone heard something scramble its way up the stairs. The guys didn't have to wait long to find out the reason for the man's fright; the girl already knew. Her companion showed up in the doorway, assessed the situation, and entered an offensive stance, her lip curling into a silent growl.

A yellow-haired male took out his gun at this point, although he didn't take aim at anything yet. The affect on the girl and her companion was, however, immediate. She felt a sense of fear and apprehension from her friend and became wary. Although she didn't know exactly why the she-wolf feared the strange object, she would trust her judgement; there were very few things the wolves truly feared, and what they did was for good reasons.

Suddenly, the innkeeper appeared in the doorrway, a bat in his hands.

"Damn!" the red-head exclaimed, looking slightly annoyed, "Doesn't anyone knock nowadays?"

"Please forgive my intrusion," the innkeeper murmered, eyeing the wolf that stood before him with contempt, "But it's my duty and responsibility to take care of this pest!" Upon finishing his statement, he raised the bat and swung at the wolf, who had no way to dodge. The bat made contact with a crunching thud and a yelp was heard. The man looked over with a smug countenence before seeing that he had not struck the wolf, but the girl who had rushed into the building a few minutes prior.

~~~~  
The Sanzo party watched in varying degrees of shock as the strange girl rushed to the wolf and shoved it out of the way. Goku and Gojyo flinched at the sound of the bat's impact on her ribcage. The innkeeper stared in shock for a moment, then turned his attention back to the wolf, raising his bat again. The girl, in turn and despite her injuries, lunged at the man and grabbed his weapon in an attempt to jerk it from his hands. Sanzo watched in what appeared to be slightly annoyed indifference, while the other guys watched in pity and (in Goku's case especially) anger, not knowing yet who was really their enemy.

It took only about a minute for them to decide. The wolf lunged, trying to protect the girl, and latched onto their attacker's wrist. Yelling in pain and rage, he raised his foot and kicked the girl as hard as he could right below the sternum. She didn't even have time to shout (or yelp), she coughed up a bit of blood and was unconcsious before she hit the floor. Thee innkeeper once again turned his attention to the enraged she-wolf, only to once again be stopped in his tracks. This time, though, it wasn't the girl that did it.

**_Bang!_**

**_

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Please send me some feedback, especially with the name! And check my profile, I out a picture of the girl there!


	5. Chapter 5

Hey! Been a while, hasn't it? By the way, I'd have to thank the one person, Holysinner5527 putting in the extra 10 seconds and replying to my request posted in the last chapter. Especially, since that chapter was posted, I've had several story alerts/favorite stories put on it... Anyway, here's the next one.

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**Meeting the Family**

The man froze, the bullet from Sanzo's gun embedded in the wall behind him, having barely missed his cheek.

"W-what are you...?!"

"You're being a pain in the ass," Sanzo stated bluntly, "We'll take it from here, since I'm sure we're not the only customers here being disrupted by your idiocy. Now get lost."

The innkeeper turned tail and ran, dropping his bat in his fearful haste. After a brief moment of silence, everyone looked down at the unconscious girl before them, and Gojyo finally spoke up.

"So what're we gonna do with her?"

Goku knelt down in front of her, then looked up at Hakkai. "You can heal her, right?"

"Yes, but her broken bones take longer to heal than flesh wounds, so she's likely to wake up and panic before I finish. Also," the man added, looking toward the floor, downstairs, worriedly, "I don't think it would be best for us to let her wander around town once she is fit to move."

"Where's the dog?" Sanzo blurted, catching everyone's attention.

"It left," Hakkai replied matter-or-factly, "It looked like it heard something and ran off."

By that point, the puppy (still being held by Hakkai) began squirming frantically, whining and yipping. Hakkai geently placed him on the floor after healing his injury, and the pup scampered to the girl, whining and licking her face.

"I think," Hakkai said quietly, watching the scene in mild curiousity, "That we should take her home."

"Che."

Hakkai looked up with a smile back on his face as Sanzo leaned against the table, looking indifferent. "You're more than welcome to stay here with the annoying, obsessive inkkeeper if you don't want to go, Sanzo."

The short-tempered monk was downstairs and sitting in the jeep before any of them could barely blink. "Hurry the hell up!"

~Time lapse~

"Why the hell're we lettin' the _dog _show us where we're supposed to go?" Gojyo asked speculatively, "We're gonna get our frickin' asses so damn lost..." He trailed off, still mumbling.

"He seems to know where he's going," Hakkai pointed out, "And we don't have a clue on where they are, so he's the best chance we have of getting there."

Hakkai, Goku, and Gojyo were trudging through the forest after the young wolf, having reached a point where they had to go off-road. sanzo had stayed behind in the jeep, saying something about the whole thing being "a damn pain in the ass." He'd been in a foul mood after being dragged along for the ride whenn the innkeeper, as it turned out, had actually left the inn.

"God, I hope we get there soon!" Goku exclaimed from the rear. He'd been the one stuck carrying the stranger on his back. "I'm gettin' tied of carrying her!"

The puppy veered off to the right, and a few minutes later, Hakkai stopped and spoke up.

"There's a break in the trees up ahead." Gojyo and Goku stopped next to him and looked to where he was pointing. Sure enough, the trees were getting noticably thinner, and the puppy was headed right for the clearing. The guys followed the pup and, once they entered the clearing, stopped dead in their tracks, tacken aback by the scene before them.

The clearing was relatively flat, with a couple fallen trees and some oulders that provided for some good den and sunbathing locations. And, of course, there were wolves, who didn't seem pleased with the three strangers' presence. Thy began barking and snarling, approaching the guys slowly.

"Goku," Hakkai saod mildly, gesturing to a spot on the ground in front of him, "Set her down there."

Goku walked to the area indicated by Hakkai and set the girl down as gently as he could. A few of the wolves trotted up to them, still snarling, and began sniffing and nudging her. Hakkai calmly extended his hand so that it was hovering above her ribcage, a motion causing the canines to jump back and snap at him. He didn't even flinch as he closed his eyes in concentration. A faint green glow began emminating from his hand, and Goku and Gojyo moved in a slightly defensive position in case the wolves decided to attack. However, they kept their distance, frightened at first; but they seemed to realize that Hakkai was helping their friend, becvause they relaxed some, and a few came closer to the girl and laid down.

The girl was slowly regaining consciousness, and the first thing she noticed was the absolute agony in her side. A long whine escaped her throat as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Poor kid," she hneard someone say; they sounded male. Her eyes flew open and she tried sitting up, but her injured ribs protested furiously. She fell back to the ground, her eyes wide in agony. With a frustrated growl, she slowly lifted her head to look around. She immediately saw and recognized the three humand from before. Closest to her was the black-haired one, although the white creature from before wasn't with him. Her hand was hovering over her side and glowing faintly. To the man's left was the male with the long, pinkish hair and red eyes, looking down at he in pity and slight bewilderment. Finally, the youngest was on the right, curious eyes watching as she looked around.

"Well, at least she's awake now," Gojyo sad, rubbing the back of his head nonchalantly. The guys were surprised that she hadn't tried starting a right with them, and figured that, maybe, she'd realized they weren'tt trying to hurt her. Apparently, the wolves had also arrived to her conclusion.

"Hey!" Goku exclaimed, getting the girl's attention, "I'm Goku, what's hyour name?"

The girl gave no response aside from continuing to look at him, confusion in her eyes. "She could at least answer me," the boy mumbled with a pout.

"Goku," Hakkai said, a small bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face, showing his increasing fatigue. He still had a small smile drawn on his countanence. "I don't think she can understand what you're saying."

"Hm?"

"She hasn't said a single actual word since we met her," Hakkai explained, "And look how familiar she is with these wolves."

"So she _lives _with them," Gojyo concluded, looking around at the canines, "Then why is she wearing modern clothes?"

They thought for a moment in silence before Hakkai came up with an answer. "The old woman."

"The lady that sent ya off with that creepy mumbo-jumbo?" Gojyo inquired, recieving a nod from the now concerned Hakkai.

_'As the trees do, so shall the walls,  
As the earth does, so shall the moon;  
Blood for blood, both will lose.'_

Those solemn words went through Hakkai's mind as he looked girl and around her home. Something, he knew, was horribly wrong.

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Well, hoped you all enjoyed it. The OC's name will be Kaori, but it won't come into play for another couple chapters.


	6. Chapter 6

** New Friends and Murmured Fears**

~~~~  
The Pain in her side was steadily starting to disappear, and the girl looked up at the man that was healing her with a mixture of relief and gratitude.

"Hey!"

She looked back toward the brown-haired one, who had apparently persist in his attempt at communication. He pointed to himself, looked her square in the eye with a carefree smile, and said "Goku." She didn't understand, but she recognized the word from when he said it earlier. He repeated the gesture several times before the girl finally understood what he was doing.

"Nn...g..."

The three men looked at her in shock for a moment before the pinkish hair said, "Did you guys hear that, or was it just me?"

"She must have understood what Goku was trying to tell her," the smiling one replied, fatigue laced throughout his voice. The pink-head pointed to the boy and said "Goku" as well.

"Go...ku."

The boy Goku smiled, and the one with the bizarre hair then pointed to the one healing the girl's ribs and said "Hakkai." Aware now of what they were doing, she picked up on it a lot faster than she had with Goku.

"Hagga?"

"HAhahahahaha!!"

Goku was rolling on the ground, clutching his stomach and pounding his fist in the dirt, while the tall one was barely able to remain standing as he doubled over. "Hagga", having finished healing the girl, kneeled on one knee to rest and was smiling good-naturedly.

"Hakkai," he said slowly, pointing to himself as Goku had done. She looked at him in thought for a second, then said slowly, "Hak...kai."

"Good," Hakkai said. The girl didn't understand that word, but he wasn't pointing at anything, so she ignored it. Hakkai then turned to the tall one, who held his hand to his forehead and was still chuckling. Seeing as how he was distracted, Hakkai did the honors of pointing at him and saying "Gojyo."

The girl processed the word, observing how Hakkai spoke it, before trying it herself.

"Go-chyo."

"What?!" Gojyo exclaimed indignantly, having just tuned in to the conversation, "D'she just tell me to go _choke_ on something?!"

Hakkai chuckled lightly and explained what had happened before Gojyo wound up picking a fight.

"Oh," the pink-head grunted, then looked at the girl and pointed to himself. "Gojyo. Gooooojyyoooo."

~Time lapse~  
The guys were now on their way back to the jeep - and the trigger-happy monk inhabiting it - with the girl following them.

"Tell me again why we're taking her with us?" Gojyo asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"She's probably just curious about us," Hakkai replied, in a tone saying that the answer should've been quite obvious, "She's not causing any harm." Meanwhile, the sunject of their conversation was looking at them analytically, as if she was trying to make sense of the conversation. She then looked over to Goku, who was eminating the vibe of total boredom. She strolled up behind him and grabbed his cape, wondering what it's function was.

"Hey!" the youth exclaimed in surprise, looking over his shoulder, "What the hell's that for? Leggo!"

She ignored him completely as her attention averted itself to his shoulders. What a strange place for his claws to grow! Yanking on his cape so that he was slightly bent backwards, she reached over and grabbed one of the clawed shoulder guards and, realizing that they weren't actually growing out of his shoulders, proceeded in trying to remove it.

Upon Goku's exclaimation, Hakkai and Gojyohad whirled around, expecting to see a youkai or something. Instead, they found Goku having been yanked backwards by his cape by the girl, who was apparently enthralled by his shoulder guards.

"Looks like the chimp's getting tormented by the wolf," Gojyo said to Hakkai, smirking.

"Well, he looked like he was bored anyway. Now he's got something to do."

"I didn't say I wanted t' be annoyed!" the boy yelled back, wrestling to get the girl to let go. She, from the looks of it, was taking the whole thing in as an enjoyable game. Goku, meanwhile, had finally had enough of being in his uncomfortable position and decided to fight back. Jerking himself upwards, he swung his leg behind him, literally sweeping the now stumbling girl off her feet. Landing on her back with a grunt, she looked over to see Goku jump away from her with a smirk. She sensed that his mood was now playfull and slightly challenging as she sprang to her feet.

Hakkai and Gojyo kept walking, neither one of them wanting to spoil the kids' fun.

"Gojyo," Hakkai said, once they were out of earshot. The tall man looked over to see the smile gone from his friend's face and replace with a slight frown.

"Hm?"

"Doesn't that old woman's prophecy bother you?"

Gojyo paused for a moment, and took a drag from his cigarrette, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah."

* * *

So, finally, here's the next chapter! Sorry it took so long, I was simply being lazy. Please, rate and review! Oh, and in case I didn't mention it in the last chap, aside from one person, thanks for nuthin' to the lot of you that sent reviews and added this to their favorites/update notices and didn't bother helping with names...


	7. Chapter 7

**Terribly sorry to everyone that reads this, but I'm discontinuing this story. The notebook in which it was written is lost, I haven't updated in months, and I'm just not getting any thoughts as to where the story's going to head. I've lost my motivation for it. **

**If someone wants to continue with it, I give my consent for you to do so on the condition that you state somewhere that you're continuing it from my story. The only thing I ask is that you PLEASE don't turn it into a yaoi or something, 'cause I hate those...  
**


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